Girls shine in muddy Mid Lancs meet
THE Red Rose Cross Country League is the main focus for Rossendale this year but several Harriers contested the second Mid Lancs cross country fixture of the season over at Wilson Playing Fields, Hyndburn on Saturday.
They braved the wind, rain and thick mud over much of the course which was very much a traditional British cross country fixture.
Alice Carr and Holly Nicholls were the only U11 girls from the club to contest the first race over 2K and, in fact, they are the ever presents in the squad and the top performers. Alice had another great run to finish in seventh place after 7mins 37secs of mud sapping running and Holly wasn’t far behind in 13th place from a total of 39 finishers in 7mins 53secs.
The boys ran the same 2K course and fielded three runners so finished a team in 8th place of the nine. Harry Hopkinson was 11th of the 42 finishers in 7mins 27secs followed by Harry Walker in 8mins 18secs and Arthur Grenfell completed the team after 8mins 25secs.
The U13 Boys ran 3K and finished in 8th place with Francis Vidler and Alfie Walker in 32nd and 33rd places respectively followed by Toby Steel in 45th.
By the start of the sixth race in which the U17s and the senior women ran together the course was becoming increasingly muddy and it was cutting up pretty badly so the runners had their work cut out as they ran two full laps, 6K in total. Will Curry another talented and consistent Harrier was seventh of the 23 U17 men after 21mins 11secs.
Sophie Howard was the first of the women in 54th place from a total of 133 finishers after 30mins 29secs, followed by Cath Wilson, 66th in 31mins 36secs and Sara Steel, who completed the 23rd placed team in 107th place after 38mins 16secs.